I have a friend who is.   Not hard to spot these days as she’s in good company with many of those who are supposed to be pastors who are too.   If you don’t consider scripture to be the inerrant Word of God (and thus above the words of anyone on this earth including the Pope!), and you feel that it’s been changed over the years by the multiple translations and rewritings etc, so you figure you can’t accept it as it’s provided, but would still call yourself a Christian, then you are also a fan of the “patchwork” Gospel, whether you realise it or not.   Because if you feel that way, the only way you can thus read scripture is to figure that you’ll take whatever bits out of it seem to make sense to you, or which don’t offend your senses too much and leave the rest out comfortable in considering it to be errant or not how God intended it to be written – after all, Jesus “couldn’t possibly be the only way to God” and He really didn’t say “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” but just intimated that His way was “a better way of many” (anyone recognise those statements of late from one of the most famous female icons of this decade?).  Sadly she too is a fan of the “patchwork” Gospel.  

My point primarily is this – IF you are that type of person who doesn’t consider scripture to be accurate in any part of it, then on what do you base your statement that you are a Christian??   You can’t say it’s because you believe in Jesus – how can you, if you can’t be sure that the portions of scripture that speak about Him are accurate.   How can you trust that He is Who He said He is?   And if He isn’t, then why would you want to be considered a follower?   What portions of scripture do you consider are accurate – just those bits that are warm and fuzzy and talk about love??   All very well and good, but it ain’t going to get you into heaven, which is where I’m presuming you want to go?   How can you trust “your” God, if you figure the half of what He tells you is wrong or do you have some other means of discerning His Will that the rest of us are missing out on perhaps?   How do you decide which bits to believe and which to ignore??   How can you have any hope in the future, if you can’t trust what’s happened in the past?  How big is YOUR God??   And I bet (like my friend) you then try to fill in the gaps with bits and pieces of other religions (hence the term “Patchwork” Gospel) that equally sound nice and comforting and tickle your ears and feed your need to not have to deal with anything awful like the word “sin” in your life.   You know it’s there but if you can ignore it in the bible, and don’t find it mentioned in other religions then it’s easy to just pretend it’s not something you need to concern yourself with.   But hey if you don’t believe in the concept of sin – then you certainly don’t need a Saviour do you??   So either stop calling yourself a Christian and instead use the proper term of “New Ager” or stop to recognise the SIN you are committing by not giving God His due and recognising His Power to ensure His Word is what He means it to be.   You are in danger of blaspheming the One you may state you serve – Jesus – John stated that He IS the Word and Jesus Himself stated that His Words would be eternal which is proving true thus far – no other writings have survived as long as scripture, in the way it continues to impact the world.   And the biggest difference about the Gospel message is how it  challenges and changes lives in the most incredible way.  

Of course, I’m SO silly for believing that God is big enough to be able to ensure His Word says what He wants it to unto every generation, and that He can ensure its accuracy throughout.  That’s not to say that there aren’t some rather nonsensical versions floating around on the scene these days, but I suspect even those, He will use to His Glory to ensure that those who are willing to search will see them for the erroneous versions they are.   Ultimately we are beholden to seek Him (and not man’s version of Him) and if we truly do He will be true to HIS Word and meet us in our need and reveal Himself to us.   May He open your heart to accept His Truth for what it is!

NB:  Another site of interest on this topic is Truth or Fables